


SHIELD Specialist turned wrangler for Earth's Mightiest Heroes

by anissa_qiaolian



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Monica Rambeau, Canon Divergence - No Hydra Takeover, Carol Danvers is the strongest Avenger, F/F, F/M, Gen, May is an Avenger AU, Melinda May can lift Thor's hammer, Multi, No Bahrain, Pre AOS Season 1, Pre-Avengers (2012), avengers fluff, phil is a teensy bit jealous, tony likesss may
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2020-08-13 22:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20181586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anissa_qiaolian/pseuds/anissa_qiaolian
Summary: AU where May was never sent to Bahrain and is assigned to be the Avengers Shield liaison instead ORAll the Avengers have a crush on their new handler, who just may like them back





	1. unpacking

**Author's Note:**

> this isnt really supposed to follow any real timeline. its just a lighthearted story about melinda may joining the avengers and fitting in with them pretty quickly.
> 
> ive never written an avengers fic before, but i adore the pre civil-war team dynamic.
> 
> also i love carol danvers, so im adding her into the team, timeline be damned :)

May stared at her partner with a disbelieving look.

When he said he wanted her to be a part of the Avengers Initiative, she’d laughed at first and thought he was joking. Now they were standing outside the Avenger’s tower and she was officially moving into a floor that had been entirely converted for her as the newest member of Phil and Fury’s new project, The Avengers Initiative.

She wondered where they got the name from. Phil was her dearest friend and she respected the hell out of Fury, but the two of them together could not have come up with something so awesome.

She’d just come from Fury’s office at the Triskellion. All the paperwork was signed.

She was now _the _official agent handler of the five person team SHIELD knew as the Avengers.

“We’ll be adding a sixth soon”, Fury told her, his one eye trained on her inquisitively. “Heard he’s the one you’ve been waiting for.”

She huffed. “So Phil told you about that.”

“That you have a crush on Thor? You know that partner of yours can’t keep his mouth shut, May. Be grateful he didn’t send a message to the cosmos asking Thor to marry you. Although” Fury paused, his tone light, “that might make him haul his ass down here faster. You up for getting married, May?”

Melinda scoffed. Fury may have looked and sounded serious most of the time, but she knew him well enough to understand he was joking. Partially.

She plopped on the couch across from his desk with casual grace and folded her arms.

She quirked and eyebrow and Fury knew this was May-speak for _you have my full attention _and launched into his speech about how the world needed heroes, and they needed heroes to look after those heroes, and how he wanted her to do both.

She sat back with a patient expression. She was honored. Intrigued. And suspicious.

“Why couldn’t Coulson do this?”, she asked at the end. “Why me? I’m a specialist, Fury, not an agent handler.”

Fury made the closest gesture to an eyeroll that Melinda had ever seen. “I know what the hell you are, Agent May. I also know that you’re qualified. So, unless you have any objections you’ll start tomorrow.”

She had no objections, but Fury didn’t pause anyway.

“And have your bags packed by five. You’ll be moving into Stark Tower tonight.”

Now Phil was swiping a key card and entering a six-digit code outside of the Avenger’s compound.

“When I told you I wanted you in on this with me I was serious, Melinda.”

“I see that now.”

He punched in the last of the code and opened the door for her. Immediately they were swathed in cool air and away from the stuffy heat outside.

Melinda controlled her feelings her giddiness and awe at the interior of the Avenger’s tower. Everything was new and shiny, and feelings of nervousness began to creep in her stomach.

“I thought that we would actually be on this together, Phil.”

They took an escalator to the ground floor, then got into a glass elevator to travel to her floor. She had never confessed this to anyone other than Phil, but Melinda was mildly scared of heights. She kept her eyes off the ground as they rose higher.

“I know.” Coulson winced and glanced at her apologetically. “So did I, but apparently Fury has other plans. Something about aliens. Sorry May.”

He led her off the platform to her new room. “You can call or text me anytime you want. You know Fury’s number and you know Maria’s. I’ll check in with you tonight, okay? I’ve got to go pick up Barton and Romanoff from Providence. In the meantime why don’t you look around.”

May smiled at Coulson’s fretting. “You’re such a mother hen”, she teased.

“Actually, I think that’s your job now.” He smiled back and squeezed her shoulder, and then he was leaving through the same elevator that brought him here.

“I’m sure Tony and Bruce are here somewhere.” He pushed the button for the ground floor. “Try not to make Stark too afraid of you on the first day.” His eyes shined with mischief, as though Tony Stark being scared shitless of Melinda May was something he very much wanted to see.

She scoffed and smirked in kind. “If he knows what’s good for him, he better be afraid of me.”

The two partners smiled at each other. “I’ll see you later Mel.”

“Bye Phil.”

And then the doors closed, and he was gone. Melinda swiped her key and entered her room.

She dropped her things near the large bed and sighed. She had a choice to make.

Unpack now, or get to know her charges.

Groaning internally, she headed downstairs to introduce herself to Tony Stark.


	2. meeting the science bros

Stark had spared no expense with the design of the Avengers Tower, but even the decadence of the front hall and the common area were nothing compared to the lab. Melinda knew that this was just one of many; Stark was known for hiding secret labs all over his estates, and she intended to uncover every last one of them.

At the moment Tony seemed deep in thought, bent over some holographic display of…something, when a nervous Bruce locked eyes with her and nudged his shoulder.

“Uh Tony…I think our handler is here.”

Stark looked miffed by Bruce’s interruption at first before his eyes settled on her and he walked over.

He spread out his hands and Melinda wasn’t sure what exactly he was doing until two robotic arms sanitized his hands and he held his right hand out for a shake. “Hi there. You must be one Agent Melinda May, Level 7, and as of this morning, liaison for your semi-shady government organization’s top secret new project, The Avengers Initiative.”

“I read your file”, he said in response to Melinda’s suspicious raised eyebrow. “And we were briefed. Extensively.”

“Yeah.” Bruce Banner spoke up for the first time. “He mostly just read your file, though. Even though it was encrypted and redacted by SHIELD’s servers. I tried to stop him.”

Melinda stifled a smile. There was something cute about Banner’s shyness, a secret charm about him that he didn’t know he had.

She shook Tony’s hand, then Bruce’s when he came around to meet her.

“Well thanks for trying, Dr. Banner. It’s good to know I won’t have to have to whip _everyone _into shape around here.”

Stark smirked, mischief in his attractive brown eyes. "Darling, if whips are you’re thing, then you’re in the right place. I’ve got a whole room chop full of em, want a tour?”

Banner paled and ran over to his side of the lab, away from the beatdown he thought was surely coming.

Melinda however, surprised both by not getting rattled by Stark’s teasing and stepping straight into his space. Tony gulped because, well, he had read her file and he_ was_ in choking distance, but instead she kept her face blank and said tonelessly: “Don’t get kicked in the balls on your first day, Mr. Stark.”

Tony was speechless as she turned her back on him and Bruce laughed. “Oh man. I like you already, Agent May.”

She turned toward Bruce and smiled, genuinely.

“Agents Romanoff and Barton will here shortly. We will have a briefing in the common room when they arrive. Until then, feel free to go back to whatever it is you were doing, and Stark?”

She didn’t continue, so Tony straightened up immediately and saluted her.

“Yes ma’am, Agent May?”

“Remember what I said.”

Tony and Bruce listened to the sound of her boots across the glass floor until she disappeared inside the elevator. Bruce was laughing again and though he shot a glare back, he honestly couldn’t be mad at his lab partner.

Tony whistled. “I like her too, my friend."


	3. looking around

Instead of going immediately back to her room, Melinda decided to look around the Avengers compound a bit. She walked through the large common room area, where her and the Avengers would be meeting for their very first briefing tonight, and paused when she noticed the game room.

Everything in the tower was made of indestructible clear glass (except, thankfully, for the bedrooms and showers. Stark’s perviness seemed to be limited to inappropriate come-ons that were only effective because he was rich) and Melinda could see everything inside the huge game center.

It was loaded with everything from foosball to a virtual reality station. An open bar sat in front of three large TV screens that could either be used for entertainment purposes or surveillance. Melinda supposed it depended on what mood the Avengers were in that day.

Beanbags and high top chairs neatly littered the floors, and three dart boards were set up along the far wall.

Melinda smirked to herself, knowing that Clint and Natasha would want to challenge her at darts as soon as possible. 

Kicking their asses would be tough, but doable. 

Melinda wandered farther into the game room and was awed by the indoor bowling alley down a flight of stairs from the main room.

Melinda headed back up the stairs to the kitchen. She wouldn’t be spending an insane amount of time here, since her job was to babysit the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, not kill them with her cooking. Like the rest of the compound, the kitchen was modern and well stocked. She snagged a protein bar from an overhead cupboard and headed back to the residential floors.

Except…

She had to see the gym. 

If Melinda was being honest, it didn’t  _ quite  _ meet her expectations. It was still lavish and nice like the rest of the facility, but it was clearly designed by someone who didn’t like to spend all their free time wrestling on a sparring mat with a worthy partner.

It was a nice gym, sure, but it didn’t have any  _ life  _ in it. 

Melinda made a mental note to ask Natasha how she felt about it. 

She heads up to her room feeling oddly satisfied, and she finally starts to unpack her things. Melinda smiles after putting away the last of her t-shirts.

This new assignment was going to be interesting, to say the least.

Right now she needed to shower, and get ready for the briefing downstairs. But first, a little nap on her expensive silk sheets wouldn’t hurt.


	4. lost and found in stark tower

“Is she here?”

Phil glanced at his watch and frowned.

“She should be.”

Clint and Natasha furrowed their brows. “It’s not like May to be late”, said Clint.

“She probably just fell asleep”, Phil said. “Or got lost in these hallways. This place is like a labyrinth.”

_May never gets lost, _thought Natasha. Her brow creased with worry. “Let’s go look for her.”

The three of them split up to look for Melinda, Natasha going to the gym, Clint the residential halls, and Phil in the labs.

“We’ll meet up in 10, and if we don’t find Melinda by then we’ll have to have an emergency meeting and call Fury.”

No one ever wanted it to reach Fury. You only call Fury when things have completely gone bad.

Phil went down to the lab he knew Stark and Dr. Banner would be cooped up in. They were there, but unusually were not bent over any work. Tony was playing catch with a stressball he stole from his desk at the Triskellion, which Phil frowned at, and Bruce was cleaning his glasses, frowning in thought.

Phil coughed.

“Hey, guys. Don’t want to disturb you or anything, but have you guys seen Agent May? Our briefing’s supposed to start in 10, and Melinda is a staunch believer that if you’re not 20 minutes early, you’re late. You have met her today, haven’t you?”

Tony smiled. Not _smirked, _but actually _smiled. This couldn’t be good, _Phil thought.

Just when Tony opened his mouth for a presumably inappropriate comment, Bruce spoke suddenly.

“She’s beautiful.”

Phil paused.

“I mean – that’s not _all _I remember about Agent May, obviously. She threatened to kick Tony’s balls in, which was good –“

Tony stopped smiling and scowled at his lab partner.

“Not good, I mean, but…interesting. Yeah. Agent May, she’s uh, she’s very interesting.”

Coulson shook his head and laughed. “May will be glad she’s made such an impression already on both of you, I’m sure. And yeah – interesting doesn’t even begin to cover it. She – she’s pretty amazing.”

“You just made a pun.” Phil looked up at Tony, who seemed amused by his suddenly awestruck expression. He leaned his head back against his hands.

“I gotta say, Agent, I didn’t believe you could do it at first, but you finally made me like SHIELD. Tell Fury he can take my Porsche, if he wants it.”

Coulson narrowed his eyes. “I am not letting you bribe Director Fury just for doing his job. And stop treating May like she’s some kind of prize. She’s doing her job too.”

“Well she’s doing it well, Phil. Consider me whipped into shape. For today”, he added at Coulson and Banner’s lifted brows.

“If I’d known threatening you would get you in line, I would have done it a long time ago.”

“Yeah, sorry Phil, but a threat from you is just not as poignant. From _May, _however…”

“He means you’re not a beautiful woman, so he’d have no reason to listen to you”, Bruce explained. Tony did a _bingo _gesture at Bruce and went on. “And while we’re on the topic of shape, let’s talk about the way Melinda’s blazer –“

“Lets not.” Phil set his jaw. Playtime with the science bros was over. “I’m going to the residence halls to retrieve Agent May. The briefing will start in exactly five minutes. Be ready.”

Coulson walked stiffly out the room after that, prompting knowing glances between Tony and Bruce.

**

_Hey_ Natasha’s SHIELD phone read. _Found May. _

Natasha perked up after reading the text. _ Location?_

No reply.

Frowning, Natasha took an elevator the living quarters. Phil said May lived on the fifth floor, her suite the white door in the middle.

“May?” the door was unlocked and cracked open when she got there, and it immediately put Natasha on edge. She opened the door with her fists raised, only to burst out laughing at the sight in front of her.

Melinda May stood in her room, dressed in a white button down with her black blazer still on the bed and pants halfway on, holding her partner Clint Barton by the ear. He was crouched at an odd angle while the smaller woman glared him down and held tightly on his ear.

“I thought she’d be reading a book or something”, he explained. “Never in my lifetime did I imagine Melinda May being late to her own briefing because she oversle – ah, I’m sorry okay! Ow!”

Melinda released his ear and finished getting dressed.

“There’s this thing called knocking Clint”, Natasha said with a smile. “You should try it sometime. Might clear things up.”

Clint rubbed his ear and pouted. “Sorry May.”

Melinda shared a smirk with Natasha.

Uh oh. Those kind of smirks weren’t good. Melinda smiled, which set Clint on edge even more.

“You’re not sorry yet, Barton”, she said, touching up her makeup and putting on her shoes. “But you will be soon.”

Natasha snickered. “You are so getting pranked.”

“I’m not getting pranked.”

“May?”

“Oh, he’s getting pranked.”

“Ha! I get to be on the planning committee right?”

Melinda looked at both of them as she locked her suite door.

“As long as you don’t end up on my shitlist.”

Natasha beamed.

She was never on May’s shitlist. Clint was about to say so, in grumpy fashion, when Phil’s heavy panting could be heard as he sprinted across the hallway.

“May, there you are! Briefing starts in 3.”

“On it.”

Silence filled the agents as they stepped into the elevator. Clint looked around.

“You know, we should really install a zipline.”

May smirked. “I’m down.”

Nat nodded. “Sounds fun.”

Phil glowered. “Absolutely not. That’s reckless and irresponsible.”

“That’s exactly why we should do it”, May said matter-of-factly.

All three of them smiled back and Phil could already feel a headache coming on.


	5. the briefing

The briefing went on without an issue. After apologizing for being late (or ‘perfectly on time’ as Clint put it) Melinda told the four Avengers (and Phil, who was hanging back and watching her talk with what she could only describe as hearteyes. It made her feel kinda warm inside, even if it was sort of random)

She got to the end of her presentation and opened the floor for questions from the four Avengers present. Tony raised his hand and she sighed internally.

“Yes, Mr. Stark?”

“So what's your status, Agent May? Are you an Avenger? Because your file says you can do a lot more than drive the bus. I don’t think Fury brought you to the party by accident.”

Melinda blinked, not expecting the question. “That’s actually a good question, Mr. Stark. I’m…not exactly sure what my role is, yet. Technically I’m your liaison; I’m here to build a bridge between your work and SHIELD’s.

“But, knowing Fury, I have a feeling I’ll be a lot more than that once we step into fieldwork. So” she sighed, “I guess we’ll find out together, Mr. Stark.”

“You can call me Tony by the way, Agent.”

Melinda ducked her head into a smile. “And you can call me May. Or Melinda, if you prefer.”

“What do you prefer?” Bruce Banner spoke for the first time during the briefing.

“Well,” she blushed, unsure of what to say. She didn’t really have a preference for being called by her first or last name. Usually agents preferred to just call her May, either out of respect or because it was two syllables less than Melinda.

“It’s up to you, Dr. Banner. I am your agent handler, which means I am technically your boss, but I’m also a teammate. I’ll respond to May, Agent May, or Melinda.” She gave Bruce a small but genuine smile. “I hope that helps.”

“It does” he beamed, “thank you, Melinda. And please, call me Bruce.”

“Can I call you the Cavalry?”

Melinda glared at Clint, who was sitting halfway on Natasha’s lap on the sofa to her left. Natasha, meanwhile, was fighting a smirk. “Can we go one day without one of you bringing that up?”, Phil sighed.

Nat stifled a giggle on the coach. Tony and Bruce raised an eyebrow.

Melinda was prepared to stare her three friends down until Tony interrupted: “Okay I’ll bite. Who’s the Cavalry?”

After a moment of silence, Melinda smirked. Phil rolled his eyes as he watched her eyes shine with confidence, as they always did when the Calvary was brought up. He had JARVIS fix everyone a drink.

They were going to be sitting here awhile.

Natasha snuggled into Clint, who gave Melinda a thumbs up.

Once everyone around her got comfortable, Melinda took a seat on the couch opposite the Avengers, right next to Phil. Despite his annoyance he shifted closer to hear the familiar story once again.

“Why did everyone just get weird when you asked that?” Bruce asked. Tony sat forward in his chair, intrigued.

“Because I am the Cavalry”, Melinda said. “And the day I earned that nickname is one of the proudest days of my life. "


	6. the Cavalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers learn the new story of the Cavalry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter took soooo long and im sorry :/// but i just wanted may's not!bahrain experience to be perfect and awesome and inspiring and it took me so long to come up with a scenario that fits. anyway i hope you guys enjoy it! :)

“It all started with this little girl and her mother”, she explains. “I was stationed in India. My team and I were right on the cusp of uncovering a huge human-trafficking ring. And by huge, I mean international, widespread corruption that was taking place inside every sector of society.

“Anyway, we were sent to this trading post outside one of the smaller areas of New Delhi, my team and I, when this little girl came up to me.” Melinda paused, a fond smile on her face at the memory. “Her name is Kaia.”

She pictured Kaia in her mind, scared brown eyes running frantically to tell a foreign spy that she needed help. Melinda was the only female agent in her unit. Kaia must have found her maternal in some way, or just comforting, because before she even turned on her translator Kaia was leading her through her village to her elders. Kai’s mother and sister were taken during the night, she learned, and it had casted a dark shadow of fear among every woman in the village.

Melinda assured her, in what little Hindi she knew, that she would get her family back and free every woman in captivity. She bent down to Kaia’s level and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

_It’s alright, dear, _she said in the scared little girl’s native language, _I’ll find them. You’ll be safe soon, I promise._

It was dangerous business to make promises like that. But for once, a SHIELD mission finally went according to plan.

Kaia still writes her letters every day.

She cherishes them all, keeps them in a special notebook she opens when she begins to doubt her life at SHIELD.

What she’d given up, a normal life, a family.

The chance to be a mother.

But on the days she thought of Kaia, of the looks on the women and girl’s faces when her team stormed the compound they’d been held captive in. She had never met Kaia’s mother before but somehow she knew instantly when she’d laid eyes on the woman who’s daughter was brave enough to tell a stranger how to save their lives.

“To be honest, the title means nothing to me”, Melinda concluded with a soft smile. “That mission represents to me the best of what SHIELD is: the opportunity to protect the best of humanity. That means more to me than the Calvary ever could.”

The Avengers sat in awed silence for the next few minutes.

When the silence was finally broken it was Nat who spoke up by Clint’s side.

“Mel? I think I love you.”


	7. mingle

Steve Rogers and Thor finally come to the compound the next morning.

Phil heads off with Fury, and Maria Hill is sent to brief the team and Melinda just after they depart. She decides to hold the briefing in the game room and not the conference room, opting for a more chill setting so the team can get to know each other. Of course half of them, the half that are high-ranking SHIELD agents, know each other quite well and are already close friends.

Maria sidles up to May and hands her a beer.

“How are they treating you, Mel?”

Melinda smiles, because she appreciates how Maria never beats around the bush and brings the foamy drink to her lips. “Pretty well, all things considered.”

Maria raised an eyebrow. _Even Stark?, _the look said. Melinda nodded. “I told them about the Cavalry. I think Banner and Stark were pretty impressed.”

“They’d be the dumbest geniuses on earth if they weren’t impressed”, said Maria. Her friend laughed and rolled her eyes.

“You know Nat told me she’s love with me?”

Maria sighed and shook her head. “She’s gotta stop saying that _every time _you tell the story. It might go to your pretty little head.”

Melinda’s eyes narrowed playfully. Maria chugged half her bottle of beer and smiled back. “Speaking of things going to your head Hill”, Melinda commented dryly. “You should quit while you’re ahead. Don’t want the Avengers to know that their Deputy Commander is a lightweight. Or do you want me to tell them the story of Phil’s Christmas party, in ’06?”

Maria’s smile dropped and was replaced by a scowl. “I was nineteen! And I’m pretty sure you added extra rum into everyone’s eggnog, which was already spiked by the way.”

The smirk didn’t fall from Melinda’s lips as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Everyone else seemed fine.”

“I was nineteen!”

Their friendly argument was interrupted by Thor, who was guzzling the bottled beers like a tank, and probably responsible for the dwindling amounts of them left in the cooler.

“Excuse the interruption ladies, but I couldn’t help but overhear. You were talking about mead?”

_“Melinda _was talking about mead’, Maria says quickly. Her shorter friend still has not fully recovered from seeing her personal crush up close, and Maria successfully diverted the demi-god’s attention as Melinda schooled her features.

“Anyway, I’ll leave you it.” Maria grabbed another beer and made a beeline out the kitchen, trapping her alone with Thor.

“Hello Thor” Melinda greeted quietly. Bashfully, she met eyes with the Avenger, who was approximately a whole foot bigger than she was. He smiled genuinely, blue eyes crinkling as they looked down on her with friendliness.

“Lady Melinda May. It is such an honor to be in your acquaintance. Apologies for showing up a day late. I had business on Asgard that kept me home longer than I have liked.”

It was surprisingly easy to hold a conversation with Thor. He told her stories of Asgard, and she told him about SHIELD. They talked about dancing (she didn’t do it, he loved to) and drinking practices and styles of fighting and self defense on their respective home planets.

He told her about the Valkyrie and she _loved _it. She laughed good-naturedly when he sheepishly told Melinda that he had once dreamed of being one, and his brows lifted in awe when she told him she’d been a figure skater as a child.

When Melinda reaches her quarters after a night of mingling with the Avengers, _her new team, _she feels something akin to warmth in her stomach. The light feelings that settle around in her head as her hair touches the pillows has absolutely nothing to do with the seven beers that she consumed that evening.


	8. the first mission part 1

The Avengers were all nursing a killer hangover the next morning.

Except for Thor, who had higher tolerance due to being a god, and Steve, who couldn’t get drunk in the first place due to being a super soldier.

Melinda was feeling the effect of last night’s drinks, too, but she still forced herself to go to the gym and do her morning Tai-Chi exercises. She thought about doing a quick workout on the pull up bar, then the persistent pounding on her head made her reconsider.

Clint yawned as Melinda passed him in the kitchen, grumbling a hello before throwing three aspirins in his mouth. He tossed the bottle over to Melinda, and she gratefully took two with a swallow of her water bottle.

She knew that their trial run was starting today and they could be on call any minute for a mission.

For all of their sakes, she hoped they wouldn’t be assigned one soon.

The team was scattered throughout Stark Tower when the call came, and Melinda herself had to scramble to the briefing room and alert the Avengers through the wireless intercom that they had just received a mission.

Steve, Nat, and Clint arrived first, coming from the direction of the gym where they’d been sparring and completing an obstacle course. Bruce and Tony emerged not from the lab, but from the game room, where they had apparently been trying to teach Thor how to play poker.

No one said anything as Thor strolled in the briefing room with a jolly smile on his face. Later, when Melinda went through the kitchen cabinet and found an entire row stacked with chocolate-chunk Chips Ahoy boxes, she would realize that they had bet for cookies.

Their first mission was simple: get in, get the package, get out. Simple extraction. Except that in the field, Barton and Romanoff decided to ditch their comm pieces, and Stark_ claimed_ to have “lost connection” in his, but Melinda could hear the staticy feedback of a dead line, something she knows from years worth of experience of tossing her own piece out and stomping it under her boot. The electricity from Thor’s hammer had shortened out his piece and Hulk obviously couldn’t fit one.

The only Avenger who had actually stayed online was Steve Rogers. And she was pretty sure that was because he didn’t know how to turn it offline.

Melinda sighed and put her face in her hands. She suddenly felt an intense wave of guilt roll over her for the way that she had behaved during field missions, even recent ones, where she had decided to ignore her Superior Officers and rush into battle against orders. She had never made a wrong call but she had occasionally gotten her superiors into trouble by going offline and using her own methods or the methods of her team to complete a mission. Nothing serious ever happened to those agents but still Melinda felt guilty. Some of her superiors were jerks who underestimated her or even had the gall to say offensive things into her earpiece, which was what usually prompted her to take them off in the first place.

But most of the time Melinda just wanted to follow her own instincts in the field, regardless of what the voice on the end of the line had to say about it. Now that she was technically part of the Powers That Be, Melinda had to follow her gut to make her next decision.

Sighing heavily, Melinda slipped into her uniform and prepped a quinjet for takeoff.

Time to go save some unruly Avengers.


	9. the first mission part 2

Since Cap was the only Avenger who was online, Melinda traced his coordinates first and hoped that he would be able to provide some answers as to how and why the mission went south so quickly. As she approached the ground she could see Steve, in his uniform, fighting five men alone. He wasn’t talking into his comm because he already knew there was no one around to listen in. Melinda pushed a button on her headpiece.

“Captain?”

Steve looked up, as if he thought the voice had come from the sky itself. One of the thugs around him landed a square punch to his jaw, and he concentrated once more on the fight.

“Steve, this is Agent May. I have eyes on your location from the sky. The quinjet is cloaked so you can’t see me right now, but I’m here, on the roof. Think you can make it up?”

There was a pause as Steve tossed a man over his shoulder and threw another one off his back.

“Uh, yeah. These guys are small time, I can take ‘em. But the others –“

“Ditched their comms. You’re the only one I still have contact with. We’ll look for them once you’re on board. Do you copy?”

Steve nodded out of habit before adding, “Yes, ma’am.” The bad guys cocked their heads quizzically after having watched him have a whole conversation with someone who wasn’t there, and they scoured the sky for his unseen ally; Steve used their distraction to get the upper hand in the fight, knocking his final two adversaries unconscious. Of course there were more as he made his way up the stairs to the roof, but he threw them off easily enough and soon came panting onto the roof, searching around for Melinda and the quinjet. She lowered the cloaking shield and released the cargo ramp, nodding a hello to Steve as he came onboard.

“Thanks for the rescue, Agent May. I’m, uh - I’m sorry the mission didn’t exactly go as planned.”

Melinda pursed her lips. “Just tell me where the others are.”

“Barton and Romanoff headed off in that direction,” he pointed to a similar building directly across from them. “Stark was with Banner and Thor at some point, but they got separated after Dr. Banner, y’know uh, _Hulked out. _ We lost comm before I could get anything specific, I’m sorry.”

Melinda nodded, already plotting a course for the rooftop ahead of them.

**

“This,” there was a clunk as Melinda dropped five sets of earpieces on the table with a thud. “Is your communication device. You will wear one for _all _missions unless otherwise directed. You _will not _remove them during an operation unless you are explicitly compromised, and even then you must notify me if something happens. You will not disable, jam, or alter these devices. You will not switch them off. And if you have any objections to these rules, I will happily call up Director Fury on my direct line and tell him you are no longer fit for this team, and your clearances will be revoked.”

She glared at each of them in turn, letting the scorn show openly on her face before she moved on to the next Avenger. “Am I clear?”

Some of them stared at their hands. Melinda cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes. When they saw she meant business they all said in unison, “Yes ma’am.”

She nodded once. “Today’s job was a test, and I think it goes without saying you all failed. Be up and ready at five tomorrow morning. It’s clear I’m going to have to teach you the basics.”


End file.
